Donnchad II, Earl of Fife

Mormaer Donnchad II Earl of Fife
Mormaer of Fife
In office 1154–1204

Mormaer Donnchad II (1154–1204), anglicized as Duncan II or Dunecan II, succeeded his father Donnchad I as a child. As a child of the previous Mormaer, he was entitled to succeed his father through primogeniture, but not to lead his kin-group, Clann MacDuib. That probably fell to his cousin, Aed mac Gille Míchéil. Like previous Mormaers of Fife, Donnchad II was appointed Justiciar of Scotia (i.e. Scotland North of the Forth). Donnchad's minority also meant that Ferchar, Mormaer of Strathearn, took supreme place as head of the Gaelic nobility and guide for the boy-king Máel Coluim IV.

The scholar Geoffrey Barrow suggests that it was during Donnchad's tenure that Beinn MacDuibh took its names, i.e. when Donnchad II acquired land in that area (Barrow, 1980, 86). Donnchad, like other Mormaers of Fife, kept in close association with the king. His name is recorded, among other places, in a charter granted to the priory on the Isle of May.

Donnchad's person was required to be a hostage following the defeat of William the Lion and the Treaty of Falaise, although in fact he certainly sent someone else in his place. (Barrow, 2003, 106).

On Christmas Day 1160, he married Ada (Ela/Hela/Adela) who is named in official documents as a close relative of King Máel Coluim IV, translated as a half sister by his father Henry of Scotland or niece from the Latin text. Máel Coluim IV's father Henry of Scotland is believed to have had children prior to his marriage. Donnchad II had three sons, Mael Coluim, Donnchad, and Dabíd (Malcolm, Duncan, and David), two notably named for the Scottish Kings. He had a fourth child, a daughter, whose name is unknown. The Earls of Fife are considered to have been important allies of the Scottish Kings from King Dabid I onward. In 1152, on the death of Scottish King Dabid I's son Henry of Scotland, Donnchad I had escorted Máel Coluim IV, introducing him as the royal heir.

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